Mincher/Wilcox Gallery

Margaret Crane/Jon Winet’s installation The First Day of the Rest of Our Lives, 1992—a coolly damning, nonpartisan inquiry into the nature of political subjectivity—presented a sobering caveat to election-night euphoria. Upon entering the gallery, one first encountered a black chair before a white wall on which was printed this message: “Hope shimmers and fades; it washes the present in a flattering light and shapes the future into something that won’t give you the heebie-jeebies.” On the chair lay a black sleeping-mask and a tape player with headphones. This piece, Voting Booth sfx loop, 1992, consisted of various crowd noises punctuated by occasional single-voice clarities underneath which pulsed a regular, throbbing sound—the heartbeat of America. Voting booth as womb-room.

Rising, one entered a corridor in which hung two large grids of 120 framed 8-by10-inch photographs taken at last